At 9.30 P. M. I notified then that they could not proceed further unless they complied with the terms expressed in my letter. The point of meeting designated in the above note would not, in my opinion, be insisted upon. Fort Monroe would be acceptable. Having complied with my instructions, I will return to Washington to-morrow, unless otherwise ordered. THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major, &c.

On reading this dispatch of Major Eckert, I was about to recall him and the Secretary of State, when the following telegram of General Grant to the Secretary of War was shown me :

The following telegram received at Washington at 4.35 P. M., February 2, 1865, from City Point, Va., February 1, 10.30 P. M., 1865:

Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

Now that the interview between Major Eckert, under his written in structions, and Mr. Stephens and party, has ended, I will state confidentially, but not officially to become a matter of record, that I am convinced, upon conversation with Messrs. Stephens and Hunter, that their intentions are good, and their desire sincere to restore peace and union. I have not felt myself at liberty to express even views of my own, or to account for my reticence. This has placed me in an awkward position, which I could have avoided by not seeing them in the first instance. I fear now their going back without any expression to any one in authority will have a bad influence. At the same time, I recognize the difficulties in the way of receiving these informal commissioners at this time, and I do not know what to recommend. I am sorry, however, that Mr. Lincoln cannot have an interview with the two named in this dispatch, if not all three now within our lines. Their letter to me was all that the President's instructions contemplated to secure their safe-conduct, if they had used the same language to Major Eckert. U. S. GRANT, Lieut.-General.

This dispatch of General Grant changed my purpose, and accordingly I telegraphed him and the Secretary of War, as follows:

War Department. Washington, D. C., February 2, 1865. Lieutenant-General GRANT, City Point, Va.:

Say to the gentlemen that I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe, as soon as I can get there.

[Sent in cipher at 9 A. M.]

A. LINCOLN.

WAK DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865.

Hon. Wм. H. SEWARD, Fortress Monroe, Va. :

Induced by a dispatch from General Grant, I join you at Fortress Monroe as soon as I can come.

[Sent in cipher at 9 A. M.]

A. LINCOLN.

Before starting, the following dispatch was shown me. I proceeded, nevertheless:

[Cipher.]

OFFICE U. S. Military Telegraph, War Department.

The following telegram, received at Washington, February 2, 1865, from City Point, Va., 9 A. M., February 2, 1865:

Hon. WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

To Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON,

[Copy.]

Secretary of War, Washington:

FORT MONROR.

The gentlemen here have accepted the proposed terms, and will leave for Fortress Monroe at 9.30 A. M.

U. S. GRANT, Lieut.-General.

On the night of the 2d I reached Hampton Roads; found the Secretary of State and Major Eckert on a steamer anchored off the shore, and learned of them that the Richmond gentlemen were on another steamer, also anchored off shore in the Roads, and that the Secretary of State had not yet seen or communicated with them. I ascertained that Major Eckert had literally complied with his instructions, and I saw for the first time the answer of the Richmond gentlemen to him, which, in his dispatch to me of the 1st, he characterized as not satisfactory. That answer is as follows, to wit:-

THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and A. D. C.:

CITY POINT, VA., February 1, 1865.

MAJOR:-Your note delivered by yourself this day has been considered. In reply, we have to say that we were furnished with a copy of the letter of President Lincoln to Francis P. Blair, of the 18th of January ult., another copy of which is appended to your note. Our instructions are contained in a letter of which the following is a copy :

RICHMOND, January 28, 1865.

In conformity with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, of which the foregoing is a copy, you are to proceed to Washington City for informal conference with him upon the issues involved in the existing war, and for the purpose of securing peace to the two countries.

With great respect, your obedient servant,

JEFFERSON Davis.

The substantial object to be obtained by the informal conference, is to ascertain upon what terms the existing war can be terminated honorably. Our instructions contemplate a personal interview between President Lincoln and ourselves at Washington; but, with this explanation, we are ready to meet any person or persons that President Lincoln may appoint, at such place as he may designate. Our earnest desire is that a just and honorable peace may be agreed upon, and we are prepared to receive or to submit propositions which may possibly lead to the attainment of that end.

A note of these gentlemen, subsequently addressed to General Grant, has already been given in Major Eckert's dispatch of the 1st inst. I also saw here for the first time the following note, addressed by the Richmond gentlemen to Major Eckert:

THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and A. D. C.:

CITY POINT, Va., February 2, 1865.

MAJOR: In reply to your verbal statement that your instructions did not allow you to alter the conditions upon which a passport could be given to us, we say that we are willing to proceed to Fortress Monroe, and there to have an informal conference with any person or persons that President Lincoln may appoint on the basis of his letter to Francis P. Blair of the 18th of January ult., or upon any other terms or conditions that he may hereafter propose, not inconsistent with the essential principles of selfgovernment and popular rights upon which our institutions are founded. It is our earnest wish to ascertain, after a free interchange of ideas and information, upon what principles and terms, if any, a just and honorable peace can be established without the effusion of blood, and to contribute our utmost efforts to accomplish such a result. We think it better to add that, in accepting your passport, we are not to be understood as committing ourselves to any thing, but to carry into this informal conference the views and feelings above expressed.

Very respectfully yours, &c.,

Alexander H. STEPHENS,
J. A. CAMPBELL,

R. M. T. HUNTER.

NOTE. The above communication was delivered to me at Fortress Monroe, at 4.30 P. M., February 2, by Lieutenant-Colonel Babcock, of General Grant's staff.

THOMAS T. ECKERT, Adj't and A. D. C.

On the morning of the 3d, the three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, came aboard of our steamer, and had an interview with the Secretary of State and myself of several hours' duration. No question or preliminaries to the meeting was then and there made or mentioned. No other person was present. No papers were exchanged or produced; and it was in advance agreed that the conversation was to be informal and verbal merely. On our part, the whole substance of the instructions to the Secretary of State, herein before recited, was stated and insisted upon, and nothing was said inconsistent therewith. While by the other party it was not said that in any event, or on any condition, they ever would consent to reunion; and yet they equally omitted to declare that they would not so consent. They seemed to desire a postponement of that question, and the adoption of some other course first, which, as some of them seemed to argue, might or might not lead to reunion, but which course we thought would amount to an indefinite postponement. The conference ended without result.

The foregoing, containing, as is believed, all the information sought, is respectfully submitted. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

In this instance, as in the previous case of Mr. Greeley the President had found himself constrained by the intru sive interference of an individual citizen, to open negotiations for which, in his judgment, neither the rebels nor

the nation at large were at all prepared. No man in the country was more vigilant than he in watching for the moment when hopes of peace might wisely be entertained; but, as he had resolved under no circumstances to accept any thing short of an unconditional acknowledgment of the supreme authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States as the basis of peace, he deered it of the utmost consequence that the rebel authorities should not be led to suppose that we were discouraged by the slow progress of the war, or that we were in the least inclined to treat for peace on any other terms than those he had laid down. It was for this reason that he had declined to publish his correspondence with Mr. Greeley, unless expressions in the latter's letters, calculated to create this impression in the rebel States, could be omitted. Acting from the same motives, he had given Mr. Blair no authority to approach the rebel authorities on his behalf upon the subject of peace in any way whatever. He gave him, to use his own words uttered in a subsequent conversation, "no mission, but only per-mission." was probably not unwilling to learn, from so acute and experienced a political observer as Mr. Blair, something of the temper and purpose of the leading men in the Rebel Government, for their public declarations upon this subject were not felt to be altogether reliable; and the knowledge we had of their straitened means, and of the difficulty they experienced in renewing the heavy losses in the ranks of their army, strengthened the belief that they might not be indisposed for submission to the national authority.

He

Subsequent disclosures have proved the correctness of these suspicions. It is now known that some of the more sagacious and candid of the rebel leaders had even then abandoned all hope of success, and were only solicitous for some way of closing the war, which should not wound too keenly the pride and self-respect of the people of the rebel States. It was due to their efforts that, in spite of the obstinacy with which Jefferson Davis insisted upon the recognition of his official character, involving the rec

ognition of the South as an independent nation, an interview with the President and Secretary Seward was obtained. But they did not secure the consent of their Executive to negotiate upon the only basis which Mr. Lincoln would for a moment admit-the absolute and acknowledged supremacy of the National Government; and the whole scheme, therefore, fell to the ground.*

The attempt at negotiation, however, served a useful purpose. It renewed the confidence of the people throughout the loyal States in the President's unalterable determination to maintain the Union, while it proved his willingness to end the war whenever that great and paramount object could be secured; and, at the same time, it dispelled the delusive hopes, with which the rebel leaders had so long inspired the hearts of the great body of the Southern people, that peace was possible with the independence of the Southern States. The attempt of Mr. Davis, in the message we have already cited,† to fire the Southern heart" afresh, by his vivid picture of the tyrannical and insulting exactions of President Lincoln, was utterly fruitless. His appeals fell upon wearied ears and despondent hearts.

Other important affairs had also arisen to occupy the

* Since the overthrow of the rebellion an account of this conference has been published in the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, said to have been prepared under the supervision of Mr. A. H. Stephens. It adds nothing material to the facts already known, but the following paragraphs are not without interest:

“Davis had on this occasion, as on that of Mr. Stephens's visit to Washington, made it u condition that no conference should be had unless his rank as commander or President should first be recognized. Mr. Lincoln declared that the only ground upon which he could rest the justice of the war-either with his own people or with foreign powers-was, that it was not a war for conquest, but that the States never had been separated from the Union. Consequently, he could not recognize another government inside of the one of which he alone was President, nor admit the separate independence of States that were yet a part of the Union. •That,' said he, 'would be doing what you so long asked Europe to do in vain, and be resigning the only thing the armies of the Union are fighting for.'

“Mr. Hunter made a long reply, insisting that the recognition of Davis's power to make a treaty was the first and indispensable step to peace, and referring to the correspondence between King Charles the First and his Parliament as a reliable precedent of a constitutional ruler treating with rebels.

Mr. Lincoln's face then wore that indescribable expression which generally preceded his hardest hits, and he remarkęd: 'Upon questions of history I must refer you to Mr. Seward, for he is posted in such things, and I don't profess to be. But my only distinct recollection of the matter is, that Charles lost his head.' That settled Mr. Hunter for a while."

† Page 578.